When Terry Samaras started working at LexMedia (the operator of Lexington’s local broadcast stations), he thought it would be a stepping stone to a future career in a larger newsroom.
He met Florence DelSanto, former executive director of LexMedia, when she visited one of his college classes over a decade ago. He was studying digital filmmaking at the New England Institute of Art (which closed in 2017) in Brookline.
That introduction turned into an internship at LexMedia for Samaras; which led to him lending LexMedia a helping hand as needed while living at home in Manchester, NH, after college; which led to him becoming a government producer at LexMedia.
“Months turned into years, I just kept growing here at the studio, and eventually I was just like, I actually really like what we’re doing here, being part of the community, digging deep, and finding new stories and ways to get the most out of the storytelling that’s happening here,” Samaras told LexObserver.
LexMedia is a nonprofit operator of public access television that’s been serving Lexington since 2005, according to its LinkedIn page.
Public-access television is a non-commercial medium where anyone can produce programming that airs on dedicated cable channels. LexMedia’s public, government, and education channels are available through Astound, Verizon, and Comcast.
LexMedia provides broadcasts of government meetings, local sports games, educational content, and other feature work. LexMedia is a small organization, supported by three full-time employees, some part-time workers, freelancers, and volunteers.
Samaras was a government producer for about three years. He then became a production manager and held that role for over ten years. Last month, he reached the top of LexMedia’s ladder, filling the role of executive director.
“I honestly never thought Florence was ever going to leave the executive director job, so I was pretty content just being the production manager here, but when the opportunity presented itself, I thought, ‘I can’t see myself not going after this,’” he said.
Samaras reached out to one of the chairs of LexMedia’s board of directors and said he was “very interested in the position.”
“He actually liked that I approached him about it rather than him approaching me,” said Samaras. “He thought that showed some forward-thinking and kind of that go-getter mentality. Two months later, here I am at ED.”
Samaras has remained hands-on in helping LexMedia evolve since he joined the station.
A sports-enthusiast, he added a score bug (an on-screen graphic showing the score of a sports game during a broadcast of the event) to LexMedia’s high school sports coverage. He also found high school volunteers to help expand coverage of LHS sports. He is particularly proud of their work.
LHS graduates Austin Raiche and Duncan Maloney started volunteering for LexMedia when they were freshman in high school to cover football and basketball games.
“They covered every single game,” Samaras recalled.
“Austin ended up going to Syracuse to become a professional broadcaster…I remember he was very thankful for everything that I taught him and being able to see them go after something like that even after leaving LexMedia, those are some of my bigger [accomplishments],” he said.
Samaras helped LexMedia navigate how to keep the local station going through the pandemic, too. He recalled moving coverage of government meetings from filming in-person to doing so online. LexMedia started a then-new series called “Lexington Responds” at the beginning of the pandemic to keep residents informed about virus-related updates. The station invested in its live streaming platform so residents could watch local sports on LexMedia’s YouTube channel from home.
“We actually didn’t really have a YouTube presence before 2020,” he recalled. “We used that as a platform to really start reaching more people in the town and since then, we’ve grown it to 3,000-plus subscribers.”
Looking ahead, Samaras plans to honor LexMedia’s cable roots and expand its online presence at the same time. After 15 years of storytelling in Lexington, Samaras is well aware there is no shortage of stories to tell.
“There are more than 30,000 people that live in Lexington and what we’ve done is pretty much the tip of the iceberg.” he said. “I want to be able to have a place where people can come in and tell their stories.”
Samaras advises people who want to get into the industry to get as much experience as they can under their belt, even if that’s just shooting video with a smart phone.
“The more experience you get, the more practice you get, the more training you get, you’re going to be ready for any experience that life throws at you,” he said. “Always be ready, always be trying to get better, and you never know when something like this is going to come along and you just have to kind of go for it.”
Terry Samaras has worked at the station for 15 years. He’s excited to honor LexMedia’s cable roots and continue to grow its online presence as its new leader.
